Five day trips from Santa Fe for a long weekend

One of the quiet advantages of living in Santa Fe is what sits within two hours of the Plaza. These five are the trips we send visiting family on, with drive times from downtown and the things that trip people up.

1. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

45 minutes southwest, off I-25 near Cochiti Pueblo. Volcanic ash eroded into cones and a slot canyon narrow enough to touch both walls. The canyon trail climbs about 600 feet to a mesa with the Sangre de Cristos, the Jemez, and the Sandias all in view.

Know before you go: the monument is on Cochiti Pueblo land and requires a timed-entry ticket from recreation.gov plus a Cochiti Pueblo pass, bought separately after the ticket. It is open Thursday through Monday, closes for pueblo feast days, and shuts for a winter break from mid-December to the end of January. No dogs, and no tickets at the gate.

2. Ghost Ranch

An hour and 15 minutes north, past Abiquiú on US 84. The red and yellow cliffs that Georgia O’Keeffe painted for forty years, and where she kept a house. Today it is a retreat center that lets day visitors hike. Chimney Rock is the trail to do: about 3 miles round trip, ending on a ledge above the whole valley, with Pedernal in the distance.

Ghost Ranch is also where the Coelophysis dinosaur quarry is, and the small museum on site has the bones. Stop at Bode’s in Abiquiú on the way for a green chile cheeseburger.

3. Bandelier National Monument

An hour northwest, near Los Alamos and White Rock. Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings cut into the soft volcanic tuff of Frijoles Canyon. The Main Loop is a 1.2-mile paved trail past the dwellings, and you climb wooden ladders into the cavates. The Alcove House, a half mile further, is 140 feet up four ladders and worth it.

In summer, you park in White Rock and take the free shuttle in. Spring and fall you can drive to the visitor center.

4. Cerrillos Hills State Park and Madrid

30 minutes south on NM 14, the Turquoise Trail. The hills above the old mining village of Cerrillos hold some of the oldest turquoise mines in North America, worked by Pueblo people long before the Spanish arrived. The state park has about 5 miles of trail through the old workings. You cannot collect turquoise in the park, but the shops in Cerrillos and Madrid, three miles down the road, sell stone from the local mines.

Madrid itself is a former coal town turned gallery row, with a bar that has been in several movies. Plan on lunch there.

5. Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

Two and a half hours south, past Socorro. This one is for November through February, when tens of thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese winter in the flooded fields along the Rio Grande. The dawn fly-out, when the geese lift off the water at once, is the thing photographers drive across the country for.

Make it an overnight. Socorro has motels, and the Owl Bar in San Antonio, ten minutes from the refuge, claims the original green chile cheeseburger. Bode’s disagrees.

Closer to home

If you only have an afternoon, the Dale Ball Trails are inside the city limits, and Tesuque village, the flea market, and the Tesuque Village Market are 15 minutes north. People who live in Santa Fe tend to stop noticing how much is within reach. Visitors remind us.